![]() Velez said her reporting showed that the North Penn Dropbox was created in 2014, with files added by male students who were given the link to the Dropbox site. Jeffrey Kratz of the Towamencin Township police – the school is in the township, though its students come from a wide area of Montgomery County and a tiny hamlet in Bucks County – said his department is no longer involved. That’s because none of the victims appear to be from Towamencin, explained the lieutenant.īut he said other local police departments have continued to investigate under the direction of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. I think the parents are satisfied,” Liberaski said. Liberaski said there was no evidence that high school computers had been used to post pictures to Dropbox, but Velez said she has been told students had used school computers to view the photos. Hynes, was already scheduled to retire this summer.) (The principal when the scandal broke, Burton T. Bauer, has emphasized making the school safe with input from students and outside speakers. The Montgomery County District Attorney plans to announce the results of a nude image-sharing scheme before school starts.Ĭhristine Liberaski, the high school’s director of school and community engagement, said last week she had heard nothing new about the investigation. He did not respond when asked for comment on Velez’s story.Ĭlasses resume at North Penn High School on Sept. He added he believes the probe will conclude soon, before schools reopen on Sept. Last week, the county’s First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said the investigation of the nude photo sharing is continuing. Was it the girls who shared the intimate pictures in the first place? Or was it the boys who shared those pictures without the consent of the girls, apparently under the age of 18? CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION CONTINUESĪ criminal investigation - posting sexual pictures, especially of a minor, can be a crime ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony – followed by the Montgomery County District Attorney, Risa Vetri Ferman. There were debates over who was at fault. The scandal led to outrage from some parents and students.Ī threatened walkout by students was averted when school officials met with students angry about the boys’ behavior and the so-called slut shaming of compromised female students that followed. News of the photo sharing roiled the campus where students from seven Montgomery County towns attend. The link had been disabled by the time she began reporting. Velez, who was interviewed by PhillyVoice last week, did not, however, view the Dropbox photos first-hand. The photos would then be added to the Dropbox.” “The system was quite simple: The boys involved would send acquired photos from past or current sexts via hookups to a text messaging group, without consent from said ex-girlfriends or girlfriends. Velez, 23, a North Penn High School graduate and full-time digital journalist and editor in New York, explained how the nude photos were shared: Velez’s account, based on interviews with multiple girls who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is the fullest explanation of how the file sharing worked. The pictures were organized into files labeled with the first name of each student seen in the images, plus there was a miscellaneous file that contained various photos, according to Velez.Īnd at least one girl told Velez there was a picture labeled with her name, though the picture was not of her. The faces of most of the girls were clearly visible. One girl, as young as perhaps 14, was seen “spread eagle with her face in the picture,” Velez reported.Īccording to Velez, the girls pictured appear to be primarily minors, under the age of 18. I think the parents are satisfied.” – Christine Liberaski, North Penn High School director of school and community engagementĭespite heavy media coverage then, details of the extent of the file sharing and how it worked were scant.īut according to a little-noticed story by journalist Mandy Velez posted July 1 on Refinery29’s website, there were perhaps 300 pictures of girls, some topless, others with full body shots. Late last March it came to light that some male students had used Dropbox, a file-sharing service, to post pictures of nude and partially nude female students during the 2014-2015 school year. Then there is what it is best known for right now: An unresolved scandal involving social media and sexual images that has lingered for five months.Ī law enforcement official last week said the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office expects to announce findings in a criminal investigation before classes resume on Sept. News & World Report, sends graduates to top colleges and has a competitive athletics program, including a championship baseball team. North Penn High School is a typical suburban Pennsylvania high school in many ways.
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